April 21, 2010

Are Sam Mendes and Robert Downey Jr. teaming up for a trip to 'Oz'?

Well, perhaps yes, and considering that Mendes just had his Bond movie put on hold, it makes a bit of sense. Here's the story from Collider:

Director Sam Mendes may direct Oz The Great and Powerful with Robert Downey Jr. in talks to play the Wizard. Production Weekly tweets that the two are circling the project written by Mitchell Kapner (The Whole Nine Yards). According to a 24 Frames article last month [via Pajiba's Twitter], the project (originally titled Brick), is, “based on pieces from several other L. Frank Baum “Oz” books as well as his original ideas. In this version, the wizard is a charlatan who’s part of a traveling circus but goes on a similar odyssey as Dorothy when he mysteriously lands in Oz. This Wizard of Ozproject is set up at Disney and is competing against two projects at Warner Bros. (Oz, and a second project about Dorthy’s granddaughter who returns to Oz to fight evil) and Universal’s adaptation of the musical Wicked.

Mendes now has free time after Bond 23 was put on ice, although he may go back to do an adaptation of the comic book Preacher. As for Downey, he’s set for Sherlock Holmes 2 and may star in Alfonso Cuaron’s sci-fi film Gravity.